"Our position hasn't changed," National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor said in an email to Yahoo News. Asked whether the White House had received Peres's written plea to President Barack Obama for clemency, Vietor said he was not sure "but the position is the same."

Obama had rejected a January 2011 request from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to free Pollard, a former U.S. Navy intelligence analyst convicted in 1985 of passing classified information to Israel. Netanyahu's appeal was the first such plea in public, and it drew support from most of Israel's parliament, the Knesset.

The Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that Peres had based his appeal on Pollard's deteriorating health, and mentioned a recent conversation with Pollard's wife Esther Pollard. "The president sent the missive after receiving a petition signed by 80 MKs, urging Obama to release the Jewish spy, as well as intense pressure from the lobby working to secure Pollard's release ahead of Peres' White House visit planned for June." That's when Peres is slated to receive the highest U.S. civilian award, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, though he has come under pressure from Pollard supporters to reject it unless Pollard goes free.

What would you think about American spies caught in Israel? Not defending Pollard in any way of course but just mentioning the possibility that US spies are most likely working in Israel too.

Click to expand...

It's not the same thing.

Pollard was born American, grew up in America, and worked for US Intelligence which is how he got all of his classified documents. Pollard was never a spy for Israel, he straight up sold tens of thousands of classified documents to Israeli intelligence. It's direct treason, and he didn't even become an Israeli citizen until 1995. I'm sure if the feds could execute him without causing chaos in Israel they would, this is one of the rare moments where they've completely resisted all of Israel's demands.

Again, I am not defending Pollard. I just don't see how bad the "selling of secret documents" would be for US interests. Israel is a close US ally and I don't see what damage it would have caused to US interests comparing the unilateral support on say the settlements in Israel does.

And from reading on his background, he has already spent 25 years in prison which is quite a long time for a similar offence by other spies found in the US. Even Russian spies were allowed to fly out of the US in a chartered plane while Israel is a close ally.

IMO, if the US wants to take a stand on Israel, it should have done on the settlements issue for example where it would get some concrete results with the end result of being in the US AND Israeli interests towards a two state solution. And eventually provide for a more favorable public opinion in the world. Being tough on Pollard is IMHO a wastage of the US "toughness" on Israel.

What would you think about American spies caught in Israel? Not defending Pollard in any way of course but just mentioning the possibility that US spies are most likely working in Israel too.

Click to expand...

I'm going to quote your reply to SoG here.

Again, I am not defending Pollard. I just don't see how bad the "selling of secret documents" would be for US interests. Israel is a close US ally and I don't see what damage it would have caused to US interests comparing the unilateral support on say the settlements in Israel does.

Click to expand...

Maybe Pollard thought that too. He thought wrong. Read this entry. Read the entire Wiki article if you have time.

Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) investigator Ronald Olive has alleged that Pollard passed classified information to South Africa,[20] and attempted, through a third party, to sell classified information to Pakistan on multiple occasions.[21] Pollard also stole classified documents related to the People's Republic of China on behalf of his wife, who used the information to advance her personal business interests and kept them around the house, where they were discovered by investigating authorities when Pollard's espionage activity came to light.[22][23][24]

Click to expand...

You can see that Pollards insidious actions go beyond just the US and Israel, even if somebody might think, "It's OK because US and Israel are chummy."